Generic Divine Energy?

[Valiantheart]

One of the problems I have with 3.5 is the combination DR requirements. Like a Pit Fiend requiring Good & Silver just to be effected. I think these combinational types do more to add to the PC "Golfbag" effect than anything else. I also play in a non-alignment based game (Outsiders excepted) and I was thinking about doing away with Holy, Unholy, Lawful and Chaotic types altogether.

I was thinking of creating a simple Divine Energy type. Its a generic energy similar to say fire or cold except there is no energy resistance for it. This energy type would effect all sentient beings causing damage as either of the alignment based ones would have before. For an item enchantment it would do 1d6 damage and cost the equivalent of a +2 enchancement.

The benefit is that it reduces the items you have to tote around. As a spell it could be applied to any weapon making it do divine energy. It would allow Demons, Devils, and Angels to fight each other and amongst themselves.

 

[DragonLancer]

One of the problems I have with 3.5 is the combination DR requirements. Like a Pit Fiend requiring Good & Silver just to be effected. I think these combinational types do more to add to the PC "Golfbag" effect than anything else.

Apart from the DR/Magic which has made a lot of creatures more of a walkover than the challenge they should be, I think that the DR requirements are ok.
If players are "golfbagging" (I like the term ) then in my mind they are spoiling it for themselves really. As DM you should know the capabilities of your PC's and you should be able to decide for yourself whether a given creature is going to be about right given its DR if the characters don't have an appropriate weapon/material. Each encounter is meant to be challenging after all.

I know this probably isn't the response you wanted, but I thought to put my view down.

 

[the Jester]

I think the whole point is that holy/unholy/anarchic/axiomatic energy is anathema to something with DR 10/good/evil/chaos/law. It's so opposed to the very nature of the creature that it can overcome its natural protections. I think making a simple divine energy that would overcome all of these DR types would suck a lot of the flavor out of the new DR system imho (which system I like a lot, btw, but ymmv).

You might instead just keep the weapon qualities and only have them apply against outsiders or something...

I don't really see the 'golfbag of weapons' as a new thing or much of a problem; pcs in my games have had backup weapons for years. Also, if good pcs are prepared with evil weapons, you might consider changing their alignments to neutral, if you know what I mean. (Note that a cleric can't align a weapon to an alignment opposed to his (as it's a spell of that type)).

If you do elect to get rid of alignment-based stuff, I would still recommend against replacing it with a generic divine energy type. If need be, use force or give it another new damage type, but divine energy just sounds... drab to me. (Then again, I really like 3e's new flame strike deal with half the damage being divine.)

 

[Mark]

Like a divine plasma...

 

[grodog]

I was thinking of creating a simple Divine Energy type. Its a generic energy similar to say fire or cold except there is no energy resistance for it. This energy type would effect all sentient beings causing damage as either of the alignment based ones would have before. For an item enchantment it would do 1d6 damage and cost the equivalent of a +2 enchancement.

Sounds like you're looking for something akin to Primal Energy from the old WotC books The Primal Order....